Weather: ☁️⛅⛅🌤️⛅
Picnic: 🥪🥪🥪 (3 out 5, nice bread from the bakery in Dollnstein, where we had a 2nd breakfast)
Track: 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 (4 out of 5, great forest trail with beautiful views over villages and the valley)
Hotel: 🛌🛌🛌 (3 out of 5, nice hotel in Eichstatt)
Name of followed trail: Main Donau weg, Altmühltal panorama weg
This morning we leave early. Not because we have a long day ahead, but because we have a relatively short day and we want to have plenty of time to relax at the hotel in Eichstatt.
The walk today is again a very beautiful walk, with some tough hills to climb.
We walk down to the Altmühl and see a statue of a fossil. Apparently this is a finding place of the first bird species (Urfogel) Normally I’m not that interested in these things, but this fossil looks familiar …. The outdoor brand Arc’teryx is named after this ancient bird, including the skeleton in it’s logo!
After this fun discovery we walk along a narrow trail through forest and meadow along the hillside with views over the valley. After 8 km we walk into Dolnnstein, where we find a bakery to have 2nd breakfast. We also bring lunch, because we won’t go through any more villages today.
We get back onto the hillside and hike under the bloomimg Linden trees which are literally buzzing with insects.
After a while we get to a good place for lunch. Here we find the car of Miriam and Ger. Unfortunately we will be walking a few kilometers apart. So close, yet so far away! It reminds me of hiking TA and meeting Karin and Jasper after almost 2500 km walking the same trail days apart.
We continue our walk and when we get to a village, we see Eichstatt in the valley below us. Only 5 more km to go. Deceiving, because the last 5 km are quite steep up and down the hills! The trail is beautiful And the views are worth it, but boy it’s a workout!
We finally get into the beautiful town of Eichstatt (hiking seemed a proffesion here in the middle ages) and drop our bags at the hotel. Next to the hotel is a good coffee and tea shop. That leaves us an easy choice on where to go for a drink 😁. After that we have a shower, wash some clothes and relax, before we go to dinner. With a big screen in the room, we enjoy our meal and on the side see how Cape Verde draws against Spain.
After our meal we head across the ice cream café for our dessert. With our ice cream we stroll across the medival square to our hotel.
A great day of hiking and relaxing combined!